9. Nine
nine
Spike
Iawoke later that evening feeling refreshed and eager to get the night started. After breakfast, Phoenix and I went back to the precinct to update Captain Burgess on our findings. Miraculously—and I blame it strictly on luck—after we informed him of our grand plan tonight, Cap let Phoenix and I take the rest of the day off to get some rest since Charlotte was helping analyze the security tapes. Currently, it was 8:30pm and there wasn't so much as a text or miscall from Charlotte or Phoenix. I hadn't long gotten out of the shower and had just finished putting my running shoes on.
Sighing to myself, I grabbed my lion mask off the top of my dresser and tucked it securely under my arm before walking out my bedroom door and fetching my keys off the center table in my living room.
I couldn't stop thinking about her while I was in the shower. Eve. The mystery woman Phoenix and I had taken a strong liking to over the last few months. Although I'd never seen the real her behind the cat mask, Eve was truly stunning—and goddamn, that woman knew how to suck cock. I wasn't sure if she'd show up tonight but just in case she did, I wanted my mask with me. I wasn't sure how to do it without fucking up the investigation, but somehow, someway, I had to warn her. If what Delilah said was true and this bastard really did mistake her for someone else, then he just might be reckless enough to strike again.
After locking up my apartment, I marched down the steps and entered the parking lot. I hopped inside my truck, tossed my mask in the passenger seat, and was on the road in under a minute.
With still no word from Charlotte, I could only assume she hadn't found anything useful, which to be frank, wasn't a good sign. Phoenix and I spent all fucking night bouncing from tape after tape until our eyes were painfully strained and bloodshot, and there was nothing—no signs of that bull mask fucker anywhere. Just because we couldn't find anything didn't mean Charlotte would, but it also didn't mean she wouldn't either. There was still a chance, though, and it was a prospect I was trying to hold onto despite not being able to shake this gut feeling that maybe this guy, whoever the fuck he is, was so much smarter than we'd originally anticipated.
Twenty minutes later I was pulling into The Flirty Sanctum's lot and had parked in the open spot next to Phoenix, who was leaning against the trunk of his car, waiting for me.
"Nice," he said, nodding approvingly at my royal blue button-down and black slacks. "You look good, man."
"We're basically wearing the same thing," I grumbled, ready to hurry up and get in the building before the crowd began rolling in. The only difference was Phoenix's shirt was white and mine was blue.
"I see you brought your mask." He eyed it profoundly, his dark brows raised. "Let me guess… Eve?"
I nodded, not bothering to deny it.
"Great minds think alike then." Phoenix walked over to his car door and opened it, fetching his rabbit mask from the driver seat. "I brought mine too. Do you think she"ll show up tonight?"
"I don't know. It's possible. Do you have the list?"
Phoenix nodded. "Yeah. It's right here." He reached inside his back pocket and pulled it out, showing it to me.
"Come on, then. We got less than ten minutes before this place starts filling up."
The front door was locked, but after knocking three times and having to wait a bit, Felix finally opened the door and let us in.
"The office is set up and ready for you guys," he said, looking at Phoenix before his eyes fell on me, delivering a wink that made my guts clench with revulsion. The pervy fuck said nothing more and then pranced through the door leading to the bar.
"How do you want to do this?" Phoenix took my mask and rounded the front desk, depositing it with his mask on the top shelf under it. "Do you want to conduct the interviews or stay up here and help Felix?"
I scoffed at him. He knew better than to ask such a stupid question.
"I'd rather get gang banged by a pack of werewolves than work with Felix."
Phoenix threw his head back, chortling so hard he snorted. "It's not his fault you're so damn handsome." He grinned bigger and waggled his brows at me. "I bet he dreams about choking on that massive co—"
"Finish that sentence and I'll shoot you in the dick, Phoenix. I'm not even joking."
He wiped the tears out of his eyes, then nodded, taming his grin. "Fine, I'll handle Felix."
Speaking of the prick, he just appeared in the doorway behind Phoenix with his keys in hand, telling us it was time to unlock the doors.
Without another word, I blew out a deep breath and headed to my post.
Two and a half hours later and we had nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero, zip, fucking nothing. It was unnerving. I'd interviewed ten guys, and not only did they not have bull masks, but I could unfortunately account for five of their alibis, due to recognizing their masks and remembering they were in the Red Room with me and Phoenix at the time of Delilah's attack.
Strangely, the other five was a polyamorous group who conveniently claimed they were all together, and had sworn up and down that they had no desire for a woman's pussy, and wouldn't so much as touch one with a ten-foot pole.
They were, um…
Very convincing, to say the least.
Aside from that whole insanely weird encounter, there was one thing all ten of them tactlessly had in common. Nobody claimed to have seen anything or recalled seeing Bull Mask that night. It'd been a while since Phoenix gifted me with more suspects to interrogate, so I decided to get up off my ass and deliver the full update.
"That's bullshit." He blew out a flustered breath and angrily shook his head. "Somebody had to have saw something."
"Maybe, maybe not." I hated having to say it, let alone think it. "You know how wild and crammed this place gets. Between the bar, lounge, and the Red Room, it's quite possible everyone was far too busy getting buzzed and being balls deep in joy to notice anything suspicious."
Phoenix sighed, knowing I was right.
"What about Charlotte?" I asked. "Have you heard from her? She hasn't reached out to me."
"Can't say I blame her. I wouldn't want to talk to you either if I were her."
"What?" I blinked incredulously at him, my brows furrowing. "What are you talking about?"
"Seriously?" He glared at me like I was an idiot. "Bro, you were a total dick this morning. First, you got pissed over her interviewing Delilah. Then as soon as she offered to help with the tapes, you shot her down, and then got pissy with me when I told her she could help. Am I ringing any bells here?"
"I wasn't being—"
"You were being a fucking asshole," he jeered, pinning me with a look that told me he was far from kidding. "Look, man, I get it. I know you don't like that she's been tagging along, and to be frank, I wasn't so fond of it either at first."
"Your point, Phoenix?" I asked, cocking a brow at him.
"The point, Spike, is that we still have to work with her. You were being an ass and like it or not, you need to apologize."
Okay, fine. Perhaps I was a little…harsh with Charlotte—yes, I'd admit it. But it was only because it felt like she was trying to completely take over the investigation. That, and because I particularly didn't like how she questioned our methods. Charlotte was not a detective. She was a defense attorney and nothing more. Phoenix and I had a strict, systematic way of handling our cases and it wasn't custom for the DAs to play tag-along at every interview. I decided not to push the issue over the tapes because considering everything we still had to do, the extra help was necessary. So, I just let it go and bit my tongue.
"But to answer your question, yes, Charlotte called me a little over an hour ago."
"And?" I prompted, my jaw tight. "Did she find our guy?"
"No. We're still at a dead end."
Fuck.
"Captain called too. Karl Greene is being arraigned tomorrow morning. It turns out the restraining order got upgraded to assault charges."
"Are we expected to be there?"
"It's not mandatory, so, no, we don't have to be there. Cap wanted to give us a heads up just in case—holy fuck, Spike, look."
I followed his frozen gaze, my lips parting and eyes widening as I took in Eve approaching the door from the parking lot. She was wearing a sexy black and red corset, a pair of tiny black shorts that hugged around her upper thighs, and long black boots that halted at the start of her knees. Her dark hair cascaded wildly down her back and shoulders and the whiskers on her mask shimmered the closer she loomed. I wasted no time snatching my mask out from under the desk and vanishing through the door behind me.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Phoenix hissed, sticking his head through the threshold to find me tugging at the buttons on my shirt.
I smirked at him. "You know exactly what I'm doing."
"How come you get to talk to her?"
"Because you know what will happen if you leave me alone with Felix."
He didn't look happy, but he didn't fight me on it because he knew I was right.
"Don't fuck this up, man. I'll handle the interviews until you're back."
I smirked when he disappeared from the doorway, and in less than a minute, I was stripped down, wearing nothing but my boxers and lion mask.
Carefully, I hauled up my clothes and raced back to the office long enough to place them on top of the computer desk with my service weapon and phone. When that was done, I dashed through the short hall and was able to run past the front desk and get the other door open before Felix could dare start whistling at me.
The sanctum itself consisted of three main spacious areas: the bar, the lounge, and the Red Room. The bar wrapped around the left side of the room and ended at the start of a small hallway which harbored two doors that led to the bathrooms and an emergency exit at the end. At the center and extending to the right was the lounge, which was basically nothing but sectionals, booths, high and low-top tables—hell, you name it, it was there for members to sit around and chitchat, amongst other things. And straight ahead, past the lounge, was a door leading to my favorite place of all, the Red Room.
I searched through the crowd, spotting Eve sitting exactly where Phoenix and I saw her for the very first time three months ago, at the bar. She was a shy little thing then, well, that was before Phoenix and I had gotten ahold of her, but now, she'd developed a routine here. Before, she wouldn't so much as let anyone—man or woman—touch or engage her, which was precisely what had drawn Phoenix and I to her in the first place.
But now, she'd come in, sit down at the bar, take a few shots to loosen herself up, and then she was off to the Red Room. Rumor has it that on the nights she did come in, she'd ask for me and Phoenix specifically. If we weren't here, she'd return to the bar, chuck back a few more drinks, then leave. We'd left our mark on that woman and she sure as fuck left hers on us. Nobody touched Eve except for me or Phoenix.
Fucking nobody.
Per usual, the bartender placed three double shots of whiskey down in front of her, and I couldn't help but crack a smile when she took the first shot like a champ and slammed the glass down on the counter. My smile fell as I watched her tenderly slide a hand up under her mask to wipe under her eyes. She was crying…
Wait…
Why was she crying?
I couldn't help myself. Within seconds I was standing by her side and cradling what I could of her exposed cheeks in my hands.
"Talk to me, baby," I whispered in my husky voice, her tear-soaked eyes widening as they swept over my mask. "Tell me what's wrong."
"Sp-Spike," her tender voice shook. "You're here."
"Did you have a bad day?"
She wordlessly nodded.
"Want me to make it better?"
Again, she nodded.
"Good," I smiled. "Finish your drinks and then we can go have some fun."
She took her time slamming the last two shots back and instead of paying her tab, I told the bartender I'd take care of it on my way back. With Eve's warm hand in mine, I led her to the Red Room. I opened the door and escorted her in.
There was a reason why the Red Room was called the Red Room. Literally everything was red. The lights, walls, furniture, tables, toys, whips, chains, everything down to the sheets on the Alaskan bed in the heart of the room was red. Aside from all the hot, wild sex that goes on in here, it was the sole reason why I loved this room so much. Red was my favorite color.
"After you, Eve," I whispered in her ear, loving how her body shuddered as my hot breath raked across her sensitive neck.
The bed was currently taken by the same five guys I'd interviewed not even an hour ago and, other than the swing, the doggy chairs, spin wheel, and sectionals were occupied. Eve made her way over to the swing and one by one, removed her boots. After placing them and her black handbag nicely and neatly against the wall, my hand was around her pretty little throat and the other was inside her shorts, cupping her pussy.
Fuck.
She was wetter than a fucking slip-n-slide.
"Fucking hell you're soaked," I growled in her ear, straining not to rip the material off her body.
I needed her bare, so after crashing my lips roughly against hers, I dropped to my knees and snatched the fabric straight down to her ankles. My mouth salivated like a malnourished mut when I saw she wasn't wearing any underwear.
"Get in the swing."
She did as I commanded and followed my every move, eagerly waiting with her teeth trapped between her bottom lip while I strapped her in and secured both of her legs through the thigh straps, lifting them up to give me better access. Her fingers curled around the arm handles, gripping them tightly, and her breath came out in sharp pants when I dropped back on my knees and brought my face closer to the prettiest fucking pussy I'd ever seen in my life. As much as I wanted to savor this moment, torment, and edge her beautiful body until she was crying for me to let her cum, I had to remind myself Phoenix was up front and waiting impatiently for my return. Time was of the essence here and I was still on the job, so I had to fuck Eve into better spirits, warn her about this bull mask fucker, and then head back to work whether I liked it or not.
I teased her first by popping kisses along her inner thigh, earning a pleasurable hiss and thrust from her hips the closer I made it to her core. Instead of regarding her desperate demand, I moved on to her other thigh, planting kiss after kiss that had goosepimples sprouting along her flesh and her pussy juices weeping a gorgeous puddle all over her tight little asshole. After sucking and licking her arousal clean from her ass, my tongue slurped up her pussy in one strong, languid lick. I slipped two fingers inside of her and didn't stop feasting on her clit until I'd stroked her sweet spot in just the right way to have her orgasm flooding out of her like a fucking waterfall.
"Oh my God," she cried, panting hard as she gripped the arm handles tighter, her body shaking. Her next words perished when I sprung to my full height and wrapped my hand around her sexy throat, the advance taking her by surprise.
My cock pressed painfully against my boxers, so I set him free, stroking him with my lips parted.
And then I silenced Eve's mewls with a deep kiss as I breached her in one swift, hard thrust that had her eyes rolling into the back of her head.
"Fuck, you feel good," I praised in a feral whisper, tightening my grip on her throat as I picked up the pace, jostling her in the swing while I fucked her fast and deep. I pressed the forehead of my mask against hers and trapped her moans with my mouth, wondering if she could taste herself on my lips.
"God, how I've missed you."
"Sp-Spike," Eve's breath shuddered, and I knew from the way her pussy was choking my cock that she was about to explode.
"That's it, baby," I groaned, squeezing her neck even harder, my balls slapping against her asshole the rougher I plowed into her juicy, swollen cunt. "Be my good little girl and cum all over Daddy's cock."
The sexiest wail tumbled up and out of her throat, and within seconds I was soaked chest to cock in her release, grinning as her weak hands slipped from the handles and the dead weight of her arms slapped against my back. I held her, my grin unwavering even when our eyes locked. Eve chuckled softly under her breath and then asked for my assistance getting out of the swing.
"We made one hell of a mess." I slipped out of her, cursing softly at the sight of my cum dripping down her pussy and onto the floor. "Sit tight for me, Evie. I'll be right back."
Phoenix was probably furious with me and since he hadn't come looking for me yet, I could only assume he was in the middle of an interview. We had a good turnout so far, but the night was far from over. I had to get back, so I grabbed what I needed from the bathroom and then dashed back to the Red Room to help clean Eve up.
"Thanks," she said, embarrassment staining her exposed cheeks as she looked away from me when I was done cleaning her up and grabbed her shorts and boots.
I always wondered why she did that, why she'd get so nervous and shy after our encounters. Phoenix and I were the only men in this place she'd let touch her, so what the hell was there to be so wary about? Eve should know by now that we didn't mean her any harm. Hell, all we really wanted was a chance to get to know her, the real her, outside of the sanctum.
"I-uh, I didn't see Phoenix when I walked in. Is he here?" she asked, zipping up one boot and then moving on to the other.
"Not tonight," I told her, frowning at her jutted bottom lip.
She was disappointed.
But why? Was she not happy to be with me tonight?
"He had to work late and wasn't able to make it."
"That's a shame," she muttered, sighing as she reached down and grabbed her black handbag. She opened it up and fumbled through it, pulling out two folded index cards with my name written on one and Phoenix's on the other. "I was hoping to give these to you together."
"What is it?" I asked, my heart jumping to my throat when I took them from her.
"It's, um…" She paused, her cheeks pinking under her mask. "It's my phone number. Maybe when we're all free, we can meet up and go see a movie or something."
Her phone number?
I blinked between her and the folded cards in disbelief.
It wasn't that I wasn't happy because I was. This was just completely unexpected.
"Thank you, Eve. I'll make sure he gets it. And oh, there's something I need to talk to you about."
I looked around to make sure nobody was listening, but just to be safe I grabbed Eve's hand and pulled her close to me, my mouth by her ear.
"A young girl was assaulted here two nights ago. The police are here questioning all the men who were here that night."
She pulled away to look at me, her eyes wide and shrouded with fear.
"Phoenix and I are fine," I promised her. "But from what the police are saying, it's possible this guy may strike again. I think you should consider staying away from this place for a little while, at least until they've caught the guy."
"Is this your way of asking me to leave?" she asked, her head cocked and lips pursed like she was confused.
"Oh, sweetheart." I grasped her chin, trying not to get myself worked back up as I thumbed her bottom lip. "I'd fuck you here all night and have you waking up crippled in my bed tomorrow morning if I could. But in regards to your safety, yes, I'm afraid I am asking you to leave. I don't want you to get hurt, Eve, and neither does Phoenix. Is that going to be a problem?"
"I guess it's a good thing I gave you my number then."
I smiled at her. "It is. I'll get with Phoenix and we'll set up a date. Now, would you like me to escort you out to your car?"
Eve chuckled and shook her head. "Thank you, Spike, but no. I can manage from here." She started for the door, pausing to stare back at me just as I'd finished putting my boxers on and had the dual copies of her phone number clasped securely around my fingertips. "I-uh… I'm looking forward to seeing you again outside of this place. But there's something I need to tell you first."
"Whatever it is can wait. We have a lot to talk about, so why not save everything for our date?"
"If you insist," she agreed, smiling at me. "Goodnight, Spike."
She walked out the door then, and after standing there grinning like some teenage nerd who just landed their first date with the hottest girl in school, I got myself together and blew out the deep breath I'd been holding hostage in my chest. I glanced down to my open palm, catching a glimpse of the number written on the card with my name on it. Slowly my smile fell, and my heart dropped like a brick in my stomach once the revelation hit me.
Fuck.
Houston, we have a serious fucking problem.